Catherine Leutenegger Photography (Lausanne)

Catherine Leutenegger (b. 1983) is a visual artist and photographer based in Switzerland. Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Visual Communication / Photography with honors from the University of Art and Design / ECAL. Leutenegger's artistic approach explores the photographic medium while challenging its limits. Adopting the perspective of an archaeologist and anthropologist, she explores the omnipresence of the digital and the materialization of the virtual world. Her current multidisciplinary practice plays with medium, scale and installation space, with a particular emphasis on the ambiguity of form. In addition to conventional cameras, she experiments with scientific tools and augmented reality technologies. Her first monographic book, Hors-champ revealing photographers' workspaces, was published by Infolio as part of the 2006 Manor Cultural Award, which includes a generous cash prize and an exhibition at the Musée de l'Elysée curated by William A. Ewing and Nathalie Herschdorfer. The Manor Award, created in 1982 by Philippe Nordmann, is one of the most prestigious recognitions of artistic merit and one of the most important promotional instruments of the contemporary Swiss art scene. She is also the recipient of several major grants, including the Prix Culturel de la Photographie 2018 (Fondation Vaudoise pour la Culture), two federal design grants (2006 and 2008), the Prix International de Photographie Raymond Weil (2008) and the Prix d'Encouragement BCV (2006). In 2007, she participated in an artist residency program in New York and began her Kodak City project in Rochester. Her second monograph was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2014 and focuses on the demise of the once booming Kodak empire. Fascinated by technological change, Leutenegger's long-term work, New Artificiality, examines the emergence and advancement of 3D printing across many industries. Although the technology continues to evolve with seemingly limitless potential, additive manufacturing is still an experimental process, with questions about reliability and stability, as well as its ethical implications. From nanoscale to monumental, Leutenegger presents a view of some of these cutting-edge uses, confronting us with the dilemma of how we humans will perceive ourselves when even body parts can be printed with the same ease and functionality as the elements of a building. . Leutenegger's photographs have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally stage: